Ingredients
Serves 4Sage & Ham Stuffed Chicken Breast
4 small chicken breast fillets, skinned (800g)
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon chopped sage
¼ cup chopped parsley
¼ cup (70g) Dijon mustard
2 thin slices prosciutto, halved
30g unsalted butter
½ cup (125ml) chicken stock plus a squeeze of lemon juice
6 medium potatoes (eg. Desiree)
250g steamed green beans
Pears in Red Wine with Lemon Semifreddo
Pears:
2 cups (500ml) dry red wine
3⁄4 cup caster sugar
2 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
2-3 strips or pared orange rind
4 firm pears
Lemon semifreddo:
150g white sugar
6 egg yolks
200ml pure or thickened cream, whipped
Freshly grated rind of 1 lemon
Method
Sage & Ham Stuffed Chicken Breast
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Serves 4
1. Preheat oven to 180°C or 160°C fan. Place chicken breast fillets, opened butterfly-style, skinned-side down on a board. Place a sheet of plastic wrap over each fillet and bat out gently, as thinly as possible without breaking flesh.
2. In a small bowl mix garlic, sage and parsley. Smear mustard on inside of fillet.
Top each with prosciutto, and spoon garlic mixture over. Starting with a long edge, roll each fillet as tightly as possible and tie neatly with string in several places.
3. In a flameproof baking dish melt butter on medium heat. Add chicken rolls and cook for 3-4 minutes, until browned all over. Pour over chicken stock and bake for 10 minutes, until juices run clear when pierced with a skewer.
4. Remove from oven, cover with foil and set aside for 5 minutes to rest. Remove string.
Slice each roll into 2 cm thick slices and arrange on heated dinner plates, spooning cooking juices over.
5. Mashed potatoes: peel potatoes, leaving them whole or halved. Place in a pan with cold water and a good pinch of salt. Cover and cook on medium heat for 20-30 minutes, until the potatoes are easily pierced. Drain well, and return to the heat for 30-60 seconds to dry out a little. Mash then beat in a knob of butter and ½-1 cup of hot milk until light and fluffy. Season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.
Tip:
Don’t be tempted to cut potatoes into little pieces to speed up the cooking or you’ll throw out the flavour with the cooking water.
When I cook a meal like this I sometimes don’t turn on the oven - try pan roasting meats and vegetables on top of the stove using a good wide saucepan with a heavy base and a tight-fitting lid.
Pears in Red Wine with Lemon Semifreddo
Prep Time: 10 minutes.
Transfer semifreddo to a freezer container, cover and freeze overnight.
Cooking Time 45 minutes
Serves 4
1. Prepare semifreddo the night before. Place sugar and 1/3 cup of water in a small saucepan. Stir on low heat, until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to medium and boil for 4 minutes, until syrupy.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat egg yolks until creamy. Add hot sugar syrup slowly, beating continuously until mixture is mousse-like and cool. The mixture should become very pale and almost triple its volume. Fold through cream and lemon rind.
3. To cook pears, combine wine, sugar, cloves, cinnamon stick and orange rind in a large saucepan. Stir on medium, until sugar dissolves. Peel pears and cut in half, place in syrup, standing upright. Cover with baking paper. Simmer on medium heat for 30-40 minutes, until tender. Remove pears from syrup and set aside.
4. Increase heat to high and boil poaching liquid for 10 minutes, until syrupy.
Serve pears warm drizzled with syrup with a scoop of semifreddo.
Tip:
Make double the quantity for when you’re entertaining. The cooked pears will keep for a week in a covered container. Make it kid-friendly by using apple or orange juice instead of wine and decreasing the amount of sugar to ½ cup.
Go for the firmer, not quite ripe pears, to be sure they stay handsome and upright when cooking in a wine syrup.